The “emotional thermometer [termometro emotivo]” project: mental health and daily emotional states in Italian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

In this contribution, we will present some findings from the “Emotional Thermometer [Termometro Emotivo]” project. The project aims at investigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on mental health in Italian adults. In this contribution, we present findings on short-term psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Study 1) and real-time emotional and psychological responses (Study 2) to this exceptional situation. The first study includes a large sample of participants taken from the general population (N = 1548), who completed measures of psychological distress, emotion regulation strategies, perceived social support, and subjective perceptions of the situation. The second study includes a subsample of 823 participants who completed daily measures of emotional and psychological states for 21 days. Results from Study 1 suggest increased levels of psychological distress and post-traumatic responses to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in participants. They also demonstrate the protective role of social support and coping strategies on individuals’ mental health. Furthermore, results from Study 2 show that participants experienced higher levels of daily negative psychological states during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and inflexibility of negative emotional states. Overall, our findings stress the psychological cost of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in community people. As a consequence, our contribution aims at suggesting the need of paying clinical attention to potential pathological or maladaptive conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in community people.